FORTY YEARS TOGETHER

Larry and Karen Wedding, 1968, Olathe, KS

APRIL 20, 1968-APRIL 20, 2008

My wife Karen and I celebrated our forty-year anniversary three months before breast cancer took her life as I held her hand.  So, it was no small coincidence that when I casually heard the lyrics to a new release of a Jason Isbell track on my Google home device that my head snapped around and it had my full attention.  The title of the song is If We Were Vampires which on first blush makes no sense whatsoever.  But I downloaded the track from The Nashville Sound and began to understand the lyrics.  The songwriter has known life, and the common destiny we all share, and this song needs to be shared by every couple on the planet.  Once I comprehended the lyrics, I understood the title:

"If we were vampires and death was a joke,

I wouldn’t feel the need to hold your hand…

Maybe time running out is a gift.

I'll give every second I can find."

I’ve had previous conversations with friends and couples about the elephant in the room when they come to realize later in life that barring a tragic accident, one of the two of them will some day be left to carry on without the other.  That realization can take the sting out of any petty offense or argument that is presently irritating them.  Neither should ever go to bed angry.  Of course, we’ve been given life to live to the fullest and we should do just that.  And if the time comes when one is left to spend some time alone, we should honor that bond and carry on, knowing that this life is only a finite segment of our existence and death is simply a transition from time to eternity.  And that spiritual existence is one spent in the presence of our creator with our loved ones in that beautiful forever.  Our time apart is relatively short in that context and it's only paused for a season.  Ironically, the refrain of the song says it all:

"It's knowing that this can't go on forever.

Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone.

Maybe we'll get 40 years together.

One day I'll be gone,

One day you'll be gone."

LIFE AFTER LIFE

Divine Light, Jamestown, NC

I recently came across a conversation between an avowed atheist and a seemingly agnostic. The agnostic had commented that “I wish I believed in God and there is an afterlife”. The atheist responded that “That’s always been repulsive to me. It takes all the truth and joy and humanity and love out of our lives. If there’s an afterlife, then the life we have here is not precious. I don’t wish that’s the way the world worked”.

The agnostic went on to comment that “The hard part about not believing in God is how many other things I can’t believe in”. Frankly, I don’t have a problem reconciling the issue at all. I believe the unique life we have been given here on earth is priceless beyond measure. I believe God created human beings in His image and when divine spirit meets human body, a soul is born. Our informed spiritual soul transcends this mortal life once we have experienced all there is to offer in this earthly existence. We all have trials and storms to weather in this life. Some folks have much more severe trials than most could ever imagine, and I have to believe that they may have never experienced truth, joy, love and humanity in their tortured lives. But they still qualify for a restored spiritual life. Of course, many who experience a relatively easy life with all of the possible earthly pleasures may quite possibly spend their spiritual life in eternal darkness apart from God’s presence. That’s why it’s important for us to spend at least as much time working on our spiritual life as our mortal life, since the relatively short time span of this life pales in comparison to an eternal timeless spiritual life.

Do any of us know for certain that there is life after death and God’s Son defeated death on the cross? I know that all His disciples were locked in an upper room fearing for their lives as their master teacher was dying on that cross. And then it is recorded that all but John met horrendous ends while proclaiming his divine nature and victory. They all had a very personal experience with a resurrected being. It is the one great hope of mortal humans and it is the basis of the sixth sense we all occasionally experience when we are privileged to glimpse into the spiritual realm. If the atheist is right, none of us will ever know. But if believers are right, he will have lost everything. That’s what’s repulsive to me.